From the hippo lake, Cheri and I went to our hut and enjoyed a day of laundry and relaxation. Just for kicks, I took a long stick and did my best to take a large black plastic bag from the crocodiles water hole. Just as I was thinking how lame it was that the crocodiles didn't react at all, the largest of the five whipped around and grabbed the end of the stick. I was quite far away and very much out of danger but I was given a first hand look of why these animals are so dangerous. I got a pretty huge adrenaline rush to boot.
That evening, we returned to Banfora and sought out bus scheduling for the next day. We caught an early bus to Bobo, wandered around the the day and eventually went out to a live drumming concert. The show was quite brief but not lacking in enthusiasm. When the artists left the stage, a number of them came over to chat with a fellow hotel patron of ours. After not too long, we were headed to accompany some of the musicians to a private party. We arrived a bit late and joined a large circle mixed with musicians on one side and party guests on the other. Each group consisted of about a dozen members and our hotel group of six joined the musicians.
Immediately, platters of food and cups of palm wine were passed around. We snacked and drank while watching drummers, flutists and xylophonists increase their energy with each song. Musicians traded places and instruments while many from the group began a beautiful and incredibly fast paced dance party in the center of courtyard in which we sat. The music and dancing continued to speed up until some members of our group took a turn and proved the difficulty of the others' dance moves by grinding the pace to a halt. We looked foolish but got a great response while thoroughly enjoying ourselves. I hope to upload a brief video from the evening if only to give a slight glimpse.
We made it back to the hotel by 2 am and were at the bus station at 6am. What better way to start a twelve hour travel day?
We reached Bamako in Mali just as the sun was setting. We struggled to locate a decent hotel and ended up staying at the Catholic Mission. Good conversation and some small small wandering were all we could muster up as we did not yet have our bearings and on a night when Ghana defeated Mali 2-0 in World Cup qualifiers in Bamako, we didn't want to take any risks.
The following day, we met up with some fellow PCVs from Mali and Mauritania. The automatic camaraderie that Peace Corps service creates is undeniable. Everyone we met was very welcoming and unbelievably helpful. A group of maybe twenty of us (many traveled to see the football match) spent the night having beers and trading Peace Corps stories. As usual, representatives from each country harped a bit about the unique difficulties of their respective sites. Ghana has the beach and fresh fruit. Burkina Faso has steak sandwiches, yogurt, cheese and good transportation. Mali has amazing culture, rock climbing and nice silver. Mauritania has sand and a completely alcohol free host country. They can pretty much shut down any complaint about Peace Corps service. They got what I pictured when I learned I was coming to Africa. They have mud huts, limited food and the need to go on overnight alcohol smuggling missions on donkey cart whenever they want to have a party. We had a great night and again got to sleep at around 2am, arrived at the bus station at 6am and slept for most of our twelve hour bus ride to Mopti.
By the time we reached Mopti, we had learned about the dissolution of parliament in Niger and about the travel restriction from June 2 through June 9. On June 7 I learned that the restriction was changed to be only June 7-9. On June 10, I learned that the restriction was postponed to June 14. Our vacation had to end on June 14 so after two nights in Mopti (including a nice pirogue ride on the Niger River) we realized that we could only get to Togo if we traveled all the way South through Burkina Faso and Ghana. We traveled for the better part of 50 hours in order to spend a nice relaxing day on the beach in Togo. Our trip to Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Benin and Togo became Burkina Faso, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana and Togo. It was amazing and completely humbling.
We were reminded of the difficulties of travel in the third world. When asking about the travel restrictions for Niger, a Peace Corps employee told us that since a hostage was just recently killed and Al Qaeda knows that the USA doesn't negotiate with terrorists, we would probably not get kidnapped crossing the border but it wasn't a good idea. Many volunteers complain about the strict, overbearing restrictions that are sometimes placed over us. When the rules keep us from traveling into countries with active terrorist organizations or strong coup potential, I can't help but be thankful.
Love to all
Ira
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